Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: question about linkage
Message-ID: <1989Oct21.235728.23815@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <80@bomb.next.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 89 23:57:28 GMT

In article <80@bomb.next.com> mself@bomb.UUCP (My Account) writes:
>How, then, can you forward declare an object with internal
>linkage whose size isn't known when you forward declare it?
>[old solution which sometimes works is non-ANSI, ANSI solution is not
> acceptable to some old compilers]

This is one of those annoying cases where you just have to break down
and say "#if __STDC__".  Many people, including me, would have preferred
that the linkage of a tentative definition be tentative, and subject
to revision when a real definition shows up.  This does, unfortunately,
cause real difficulties for one-pass compilers on machines with difficult
linkers.  The old behavior that you refer to wasn't dependably portable.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu